By Peter Dunne*
Congratulations Donald Trump! I do not support anything you stand for, and certainly would not have voted for you, had I been an American citizen eligible to vote last year. Nor do I think you will be a good President for the United States or the world. No, congratulations are due because in less than week in office you have arguably changed the nature of political discourse for years to come, and so are already probably already the most influential American President of recent times.
In classic Orwellian doublespeak, you will succeed, even if all your policies fail, because you will be constantly telling us what a success you are. Your supporters are already so disillusioned and embittered that they do not expect you to be able to make things better for them, even if you serve the full two terms. They support you because they think you understand their pain.
We know a little about this in New Zealand, especially those of us who went through the Muldoon years.
He promised to “rebuild our shattered economy” and create 410,000 jobs “for your children and your children’s children”. Yet during his time, debt, inflation and unemployment all rose to near record levels. No matter, he still proclaimed his belief in the “Muldoon economic miracle”, and lectured the world on economic reform. But, to be fair, he paled alongside you. And it has taken us only a generation to get over the damage he wrought.
Even all these years later, and after pretentious academics, economists, business leaders and others have written so many terrible things about him, he still has his admirers – politicians prepared to deny reality if they think there is a heart string to be plucked, or a vote to be gained.
They share your distaste of science and evidence because it can be awkward.
We have some calling for the reopening of a mine where 29 men died so tragically over six years ago, even though all the evidence says the mine is still unstable and unsafe to enter.
We have a major housing problem in Auckland, our biggest city, and some politicians are calling for a ban on sales of houses there to people with foreign sounding names to solve the problem, even though the facts show only about 3% of Auckland homes are sold to real foreigners.
Your idea of a wall of just building a wall to stop foreigners entering in the first place sounds so much bolder.
Your intelligence agencies may have told you we have an election in a few months. (Oh, I forgot, you do not trust them because they found out about the Russians hacking computers to swing the election your way.) But, anyway, your imitators here are likely to try the same tricks you did last year – you know, all the post truth politics stuff, and, the one I really like, that your staff released last week – the alternative facts idea.
However, I do not think they will do as well as you. Partly, because they are not as bright as you keep telling us you are (some of them try to tell us how bright they are, but it does not really wash, because we know they are just narcissists and bullies, something you would never let anyone accuse you of.) But the bigger problem is New Zealanders are a bit too cynical. We are a nation of bargain hunters, and are much more likely to see how something works and whether it will last the distance before actually buying it.
Our political charlatans and snake-oil merchants will be watching you closely over the next few months, to see how you keep getting away with it, and then trying to do the same here.
The problem is our media is still not completely cowered yet, (we do not have an equivalent of Fox News here) and has not quite got the hang of alternative facts, although some are trying hard to. They may not choose to see things the way you do, which will be inconvenient, for your imitators here, but you will be pleased to know the charlatans will still be given plenty of air time because trivia is what counts for news these days, apparently.
On their behalf, I am not worried. I am very confident that as you get into your second and third weeks in office, the art of governing the most powerful nation on earth will be so much clearer to you, and so much more of a breeze that you will have easily found new and convincing ways of making white look black, and no crowds at your inaugural parade look like the greatest public turnout ever in the history of world.
Congratulations, Mr President. You have shown up those of us who believe in politics based on evidence, reason and common sense (the shared values of our community) to be part of the problem.
Far better, perhaps, to follow your lead and throw reason and evidence out the window, and rely on simple slogans, and gut prejudices instead.
After all, we all only live once, and, anyway, it will be the next generation who have to pick up the pieces from our folly.
*Peter Dunne is an MP, Government Minister, and leader of the United Future Party. This is a republished version of his latest NZ Future blog.
89 Comments
The 3% of buyers of existing homes with foreign sounding names is a data factoid produced out of a questionnaire designed by a functionary of a government department acting under direct instructions of the minister of the day
As a factoid, it was totally accurate, however, a reading of the questionnaire that produced that factoid, one would think it was a miracle they even got to 3%
It was a deviously fiendishly cleverly designed questionnaire
The other fact is it was promised to be published every 3 months. So far only 2 results published out of 5. All you mushrooms have to stay in the dark. Have you wondered why we haven't had any more factoids.
Has anybody seen the revised questionnaire yet.
Fair question.
I don't have any links or further and better particulars for you
A set of alternative facts are :- the results are drawn from a questionnaire required by LINZ (which I conflate with the word survey because people can lie or omit or misunderstand) and because the data is NOT drawn from verifiable factual data held by the IRD
Make of that what you will - gotta love this "alternative facts" business
Have now edited the post and changed the word survey to questionnaire
Wake up Peter
In Australia : (http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/foreignpurchaser)
- Foreign Students and Foreign Temp Workers are labelled FOREIGN Buyers
- They are included in Foreign buyer figures along with Offshore foreigners.
- They pay stamp duty (small amount compared to Vancouver)
In NZ
- Foreign Students and Temp Workers (although they made up 30% of LINZ resident buyers) are NOT classified as foreign buyers.
NZ should have the same definition of Foreign buyer as Australia.
Just to be clear for those that still don't understand (from the Aus govt website above)
Foreign natural persons
You are a foreign purchaser if you are not:
A citizen or permanent resident of Australia,
Or a New Zealand citizen with a Special Category Visa (Subclass 444)
Masterstroke by the Main Stream Media
getting the kiwi public to think
- Resident v Non Resident instead of
- Citizen v Non Citizen
when it comes to buyers of property. With the IRD etc
Australia, Canada. Singapore all ask if Citizen or Permanent Resident. If you are not then you are classified a FOREIGN BUYER
So Foreign Buyers include
- Offshore Buyers
- Foreign Students (who buy properties on behalf of their parents)
- Foreign Temp Visa workers
All Foreign.
In NZ conveniently only the offshore are classified by MSM as foreign buyers. Liberals running the show
that is the difference between trump and dunne, when trump makes stuff up and tells a porky he knows he is doing it,
dunne still believes the porky of 3% and it out here spreading it like the holy truth but does not know it is a porky
Peter and David are irrelevant, they are there to vote in favour for the sake of there seats, most of what the two of them say they will back track if told to
This article can be added to the 20+ anti-Trump articles streaming through the NZ mainstream media every day. In fact, count the number on the main news sites & channels today. Melanias eyes, the warm toilet seat, Madonnas threats etc.
No worries in NZ Peter, we are completely sold out to a mixture of socialism, PC correctness, combined with a dollop of neoliberal globalism. There are no alternatives on offer for the NZ voter.
One positive phenomenon that Trump exposed is the media bias & irrelevance & many NZers no longer read NZ newspapers or watch NZ TV news.
Indeed the media are fixated on publishing anything negative they can on Trump and anyone who supported Trump. Just look at the rubbish the Herald are peddling about Peter Thiel. Yesterday they revealed Thiel is a New Zealand citizen and donated to Trumps campaign and today's article is called "The Weird World of Peter Thiel".
I wonder what they would be saying if Peter Thiel had voted for Clinton?
If it is possible, what I see of Thiel, he is even more a narcissist sociopath than Trump is, and you do not have to investigate far into his view on life to understand that. The trouble with a lot of people is they refuse to use anything but a $ sign to evaluate anything.
The MSM are so caught up in the anti-Trump crusade/frenzy, that their extreme bias and trivial nature is really being revealed to all. Which, in a way, is quite a good thing. The truth about the alliance between the left-wing liberal view combined with the established neoliberal corporate/banking / political establishment view is clearly being revealed. They make no secret of the 'information' they create anymore.
He is wrong in saying that kiwi wants a ban on foreign sounding name BUT to non resident/foreign buyers who are coming loaded for speculative gains (that too not ban but to add tax to control the speculation). Says thing in extreme to serve their vested goals - otherwise why would they manipulate and lie. Has anyone said that all foreign sounding name should be banned from buying property - heard it first time.
Also the data that shows 3% non resident buyer/foreign buyer is wrong as admitted by the agency releasing the data. themselves - This is how politicians with vested interest manipulate and lie about the data to suit their interest and also go to extreme that kiwi want to ban all foreign sounding name from buying. How wrong they are and exposed.
Election approaching and now with internet, social media, it will hard to promote false propaganda and get away as may be was possible earlier.
Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light. George Washington
It may be unpalatable, but the bottom line in Brexit and Trumpism is the desire of the masses (ie ordinary working folk) for the preservation of national identity at the expense of globalisation. I strongly suspect this will be a key factor (no pun) in the upcoming election. And Peter Dunne obviously knows that. Probably John Key did, too. The flag fiasco will have been a wake-up call.
I think you need to be a bit careful there Pietro with your "bottom line" comment. The reality is the Brexit vote was very close overall and London, Scotland and Northern Ireland actually voted to stay in the EU. And whilst Trump won in the Electoral College comfortably, which is what matters in terms of getting elected, Hillary won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. So the bottom line to me is the two issues - Brexit and Trumpism - have deeply divided their respective countries.
No I think we have the narrative wrong , simply because the US political establishment has been the sounding -board and echo chamber of the left for years , does not mean this should go on forever .
We now have a new dynamic , there are alternative views to the liberal left , and alternative versions of the truth which some see as divisive and regard with derision
I know it looks ridiculous when you see it typed , but its nothing new ..........some call it Spin
Trump says his was the most watched televised inauguration ever , but we see blank spaces of pictures taken way before the event showing a smaller crowd than Obama
Apparently , the security services stopped people from getting to the event . Thats Trumps version of the truth
There is evidence supporting this with people saying ( on TV) they could not get to the area in front of the inauguration , so they lined the streets instead .
Whose version of the truth is correct ?
Trump's or CNN's
Presented with more than one side of a story , who do you believe?
What is the correct version of the truth ?
For example Trump sees 25 million undocumented migrants , some of whom are responsible for for crime and he wants to stop this getting worse , or reverse it
The Washington and Hollywood establishment sees 25 million basically good people who are undocumented and who want to improve their lives / situations, share the American dream and who need the help of all good thinking Americans to achieve this
Its two different or alternative interpretations or versions of the same irrefutable truth .
Its also like the settlements in the West bank , Obama sees a two state outcome , the Israelis dont want a 2 state outcome with a border that's within rifle shot of the Tel Aviv in general or Ben Gurion international airport in particular , and they will simply continue to settle there . Now you know the alternative version of the truth in this matter , you should know that as long as the sun rises in the morning , Israel is not going to agree to a 2 state solution .
No UN Resolution will ever stop the settlements
Pity New Zealand did not consider this version of the unpleasant truth before embarking on sponsoring an ill-advised , ill-conceived UN Resolution to bash Israel.
Nonsense. 'Two sides to every story' is when there are different perspectives and/or opinions on an issue or fact/s. Alternative Facts is a euphemism for bare-faced lies. Objective reality is a thing, yo.
Doesn't it bother the Trump supporters that they treat you with such contempt? Confident that they can feed the fans any old patently false crap and they'll swallow it without question and start parrotting?
Nz is supposed to be the small independent country that speaks it's mind to the bigger countries. Banning nukes here didn't stop the nuke production one bit but that was not the point. What a cowardly stance you would have us take. I thought it was the only good thing I ever heard of Murray Mcully doing in parliament.
You might enjoy this article Gareth (initially posted by Stephen Hulme elsewhere) it illuminates the causes very well and explains the reasons the consequences are inevitable:
"But it isn't just the Left's fat-cats who have feathered their own nests while denigrating the Working Class with arrogantly contemptuous scorn: the entire protected, privileged "liberal" elitist Establishment has responded with a very illiberal outrage that their protected, privileged skims and scams might be endangered by an uprising of the loathed and ridiculed Working Class that they reckoned would remain safely cowed and conned.
As noted yesterday, the only moment in recent history in which the Wall Street-cartel-state strongholds of privilege, wealth and power (i.e. owners of capital) felt threatened by political insurrection by disenfranchised labor was The Great Depression of the 1930s."
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/the-protected-privileged…
Brexit & Trump have managed, against overwhelming odds, to win the vote of ordinary people.
This has revealed the underlying true opinion of the majority who do not actually believe the media or the globalisation narrative.
This has been very upsetting to the elite and the liberals who have up until now been successful with their manipulation of the public.
NZ does not have any hope of a moving to a Brexit or Trump position as we have a compliant trivialised media, and a economic narrative of selling all that we have on the global market.
Whether it's National, or Labour/Greens - it's more of the same.
Anything in extreme is bad. Even denial and manipulation by the current government for most of their policy - Big example is the role of overseas buyer in NZ just to support their bias policy is also wrong. They too are going all out to protect their vested interest and policy. Is that not in extreme by people in power - trying to suppress truth. Possible in NZ as lack of persuasive investigative media.
More the denial and lie - More the anguish and the result is...............
Government forgets that time has changed and now with social media and internet it is hard to promote false and vested propaganda.
Thumb rule is No one like to be manipulative and lied and that applies to all sphere of life. Many in NZ are fed up with the government policy of denial, lie and manipulation and are looking for a change. For good or bad only time will tell but change - is should be and will be.
Pot calling the kettle black. Dunne has for years ignored irrefutable evidence on the real cost of alcohol harm while continuing the USA fictional narrative on the evil weed. We are in this sense more American than the Americans - thanks in large measure to Mr Dunne and his buddies in the breweries.
Download only $4.50 - worth it;
http://www.druglawed.com/
So hoping we will be done with Dunne in 2017.
Foreign Buyers need to include FOREIGN STUDENTS & FOREIGN TEMP WORKERS
Forget if Resident or Non-Resident
The question is are you a Citizen or Permanent Resident. If the answer is no then they are foreign buyers .
This will bring us in line with Australia's definition.
LABOUR/GREENS amend your definition of foreign buyer to include all foreigners. yes all ie Student buyers and temp visa workers.
Here just copy the definition in Victoria :
Foreign purchasers
You will be a foreign purchaser if you are a foreign natural person, a foreign corporation or a trustee of a foreign trust.
Foreign natural persons
You are a foreign purchaser if you are not:
A citizen or permanent resident of Australia,
Or a New Zealand citizen with a Special Category Visa (Subclass 444)
Foreign corporations
A foreign corporation includes:
Corporations incorporated outside Australia, and Corporations incorporated in Australia if a foreign natural person, another foreign corporation or trustee of a foreign trust has a controlling interest in those corporations
Foreign trusts
A foreign trust is a trust where a foreign natural person, foreign corporation or in the trustee of another foreign trust, has a substantial interest in the trust estate of that trust.
Of course a seller could be a foreigner , but why would they even dream of selling when:-
Your asset is growing by more than you can earn each year
We have no Capital Gains Tax so the gains are str8 profit
No transfer duty
No Gift duty
No Estate Duty
A Kiwi is paying your mortgage for you
Until last year you did not need an IRD number so you paid no tax on rental income
We are like a Tax Haven for foreigners
Any voter wanting well paid jobs, protection from an avalanche of foreign money pumping up housing, limits on unfettered immigration, limits on large corporate monopolies, etc have 2 barriers.
One barrier to to be able to vote for such a government against the biased media & institutions committed to globalisation.
Second barrier is the backlash from 'protesters' who are financed and supported by the corporate/neoliberal establishment.
It may take a stronger leader than Winston Peters!
Great comment MortgageBelt.
Too much $$$$$$ is on the table why would the establishment want anything changed.
The media pretend that they care by saying just enough to look like they are interested in solving the issue however never enough to demand the ACTONS that really need to happen.
It is a fine act they are playing and no doubt the ex-PM taught them how to pull it off as he was a genius at it.
The media then keep their advertisers happy and the politicians sleep easy knowing their investment flats are increasing by the day and they have the media's backing.
Everyone is happy :)
Masterstroke by the Main Stream Media
getting the kiwi public to think
- Resident v Non Resident instead of
- Citizen v Non Citizen
when it comes to buyers of property. With the IRD etc
Australia, Canada. Singapore all ask if Citizen or Permanent Resident. If you are not then you are classified a FOREIGN BUYER
So Foreign Buyers include
- Offshore Buyers
- Foreign Students (who buy properties on behalf of their parents)
- Foreign Temp Visa workers
All Foreign.
In NZ conveniently only the offshore are classified by MSM as foreign buyers. Liberals running the show
"In classic Orwellian doublespeak, you will succeed, even if all your policies fail, because you will be constantly telling us what a success you are....We know a little about this in New Zealand, especially those of us who went through the Muldoon years."
Peter, you forgot to mention the Key years when he promised to solve the housing crisis.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00336.htm
"The good news is that we can turn the situation around. We can deal with the fundamental issues driving the home affordability crisis. Not just with rinky-dink schemes, but with sound long-term solutions to an issue that has long-term implications for New Zealand’s economy and society."
Following his inauguration speech, Trump was found guilty of the cardinal presidential sin: putting his country first. He towed a more protectionist line and promised an America that would work for the American people, and not the rest of the world.
All these Womens marches need to be put into perspective too . Nowhere during the campaign trail did he say anything that implied that he would not value women’s rights.
Believe me , you would have heard about it from every media group on earth starting with CNN
The protests against Trump were drummed up way out of proportion, in my opinion.
Sure he is sexist and full of bravado , but so are the simple majority on men on the planet , they just dont show it so much
Ha ha ha ha ha seems he is proving to be nothing but a petulant, 70 year old, self involved juvenile, even I might be surprised at how quickly this is over, apparently it is interfering with his TV watching. If if wasn't so sad, it would be hilarious. One good thing has come out of it, though, the phrase "alternative fact".
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-struggles-badly-pass-test…
LOL, quoting Rachel Maddow's blog and an unnamed source - armchair psychologist on Trump's character. This is the media that demonstrated a palpable tone of mourning when Trump won, and now we have their expert opinion on what's going on in his head.
The general level of insight into these issues in NZ is just inane and embarrassing.
Try this for size then, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/01/24/trumps-em…
The guy is unhinged, you can't see that?
Women have every reason to fear attacks on their rights by Pence, Ryan, and the other True Believers. Take a look at their records. And they're the one's running this clown show. Trump's just the stalking horse, only there to whip up the crowds. Now that they've won, he's basically irrelevant. Useful in his vanity, and how easy he is to manipulate.
Every picture tells a story, don't it? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=117883…
Now this https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-lawmaker-no-abortion-access-would-f…
Take particular notice of the following
"House Bill 948 would ban and criminalize abortions at any stage, direct state officials to ignore “any conflicting federal” laws, and would no longer exempt pregnancies as a result of rape, incest or fetal abnormalities."
I wonder if he has a follow up bill making the cost of these forced pregnancies to be met by the state, especially any babies born with abnormalities.
This looks like the entire Republican Party is going full on totalitarian.
But then Mr Dunne, how DARE you use a forum such as this to try and fool people over foreign buyer stats. Loving your alternative fact over the 3% of houses sold in AUCKLAND were to foreigners, that shonky figure was NATIONWIDE, you nonce. You ruined your argument with your first alternative fact, I don't think I need to into anything else, anyone with a modicum of knowledge and LINZ itself know these figures are completely unreliable (I think they said unreliable).
NZ the doomsday bunker
Rich Silicon Valley doomsday 'preppers' buying up NZ land
Foreigners bought more than 3500 square kilometres of NZ in the first 10 months of 2016, more than four times as much as they did in the same period in 2010
One American hedge-fund manager who owned two New Zealand homes told The New Yorker he expected at least a decade of political turmoil in the United States
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/rich-silicon-valley-dooms…
He he, There certainly could be a grain of truth in that, though most of the middle class Americans seem to be heading off to Canada.
BBC article: When they said they'd leave the country if Trump became US President, they weren't kidding.
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170123-meet-the-people-leaving-trump…
It would be funny if they had to introduce Capital Flight restrictions on Americans due to a mass exodus.
Interesting how all these Trumpist posters are obsessing over the well worn 3% issue and ignoring the facts about the lying Tyrant , which was the main thrust of the article.
An article which Trump will ignore, but Bill English was also brave to state that he was not optimistic about separate new trade deals with the US within earshot of Trump.
And more "alternative facts" are brewing;
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-climatechange-idUSKBN15…
You can easily argue Trump is as clueless re the environment as the Green party ... who have a policy of "sustainable growth". The choice is actually collapse the economy OR the environment. Which comes first. Nature doesn't care - it will let physics run its course and humans will be voted off in due course.... But in general, I dont hear anyone arguing for collapsing the economy.
"It takes a massive amount of energy to maintain what civilisation we currently have. To make matters even worse, the economy requires growth to remain solvent. The simple truth of the matter is that there are limits in a finite world. We are reaching multiple limits right now with respect to energy, climate and resources. Our civilization is leveraging resources to the max in a vain attempt at holding a facade of civilization together. A more apt description of our predicament is overshoot"
Well after my initial contribution this morning I was gobsmacked by the follow up replies.
I could not resist the chance to email our illustrious Guest contributor as follows:
Hi Peter,
Boy what a dozy you made of your claim regarding 3% only of Auckland house sales made to foreigners.
Yes that was my pick up on the article first thing today.
All I can say is that I did not expect to frantic avalanche of contributions made by the erudite bunch that are the members of interest.co.nz
Best of luck for the 2017 election. You will need it.
Cheers
D
Mr Dunne, you backed the wrong horse and that horse has bolted for Hawaii.
It's a bit late to cast yourself as both voice of reason and voice of Mr and Mrs Kiwi.
That's another horse that has bolted (last sighted out of its gourd on the legal highs that you were so hesitant to tackle and that your son was so keen to legally represent).
How's this going to work out http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/11/az-indian-tribe-controls-75-mil… looks like someone hasn't done their homework - AGAIN
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